Menootering No More...

The Menootering Tour ended, as Ducky told you, the first weekend of August when we came over the water to Dunoon. I do quite like being in town during this month as it tends to be buzzing, building up to the final weekend when The Cowal Gathering takes place. That does mean parking is a bit of a b*****r, but I just stay in The Grey and settle into kerb-side life by the shore. This means putting up with constant traffic (it's the main road from the vehicle ferry into town), some of it quite buffeting because, apparently, the suggested speed marker is taken as a minimum rather than a max...

But nothing quite beats opening up in the morning to scenes like this...

To be fair, most of the time it is overcast and probably raining, too, but on the whole, the weather this year has been kinder (although, as we all know, it's also worrying, the tropics arriving this far north...)

I didn't only stay in the main town. For one week, I drove a bit further down the peninsula to Innellan and parked right on the shore in a wee community park. That was rather fabulous and much more peaceful.

There were a lot of photos and links and memories of the trip to sort out, so most days I was working on getting the blog posts working as you have found them. Sadly, I had let the knitting sit unattended for some time, but a couple of weeks ago I did pick it up again... As Saturday Stitches is back and running, you will know by now (as will I) whether the cardigan got finished! 

There were some spectacular sunrises, though sunsets tended to be clouded over... particularly during the eclipse. Very disappointing, because I had a prime viewing spot, had it been clear. Instead, the clouds just got thicker and thicker and thicker... sigh... so yes, the world went dark, but not because of the moon boistering the sun.

I did get up to the Hutch, eventually... 

The Waverley was having a good time with all this not-raining weather, and appeared to have capacity loads each trip out. As it tours the Clyde Estuary, it does stop in at various harbours, including Dunoon, enabling visitors to walk the prom and visit the Castle Gardens... so that is where I 'planted' Ducky 6939, in the hope that one or other visitor will spot her and whisk her off on yet another stage of her great adventure.

Tomorrow, Hettie will bring you lots of lovely nature views from our wee part of Scotland's Secret Coast, but let me end today's post with another etherwobbly whinge. As I typed this today (two weeks before you read it), after a system update last night, I found that at the start of each paragraph, I have to retype my first word because the system is now 'eating' whatever I first put...😶 Not only that, but for reasons it alone can know, in the drafts listing, it has chosen to rename my 'menoizikul' posts and label... What the actual....??!! When I preview the posts, they appear to show correctly, so it will be interesting to see what happens when they go live... I'm pretty sure that this and the late delivery of posts is all part of the ever-creeping influence of the arsehole artificial mental thing... (am I becoming a GOW? [grumpy ol' wummin])

Menoizikul; Midweek Musicalisms

The second in this miniseries on Holst's 'other works' brings you a military piece that definitely carries some of the quality found in The Planets. If you know that work as well as I do, I'm sure you will pick up those motifs and musical signatures. Add to it that this performance by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra is positively sublime, and I am certain you will enjoy these ten minutes. Each player seems fully invested in their part, and the conductor is proud and trusting of his musicians. 

Adventures Of Ducky 6939

Quackity, quackity, quackity...QUAck!! 

Well, peeps and pets of Blogville, it has been fun... but this is it; this is the end of travels with YAM-aunty. After that rather fine visit to the Weaver's Cottage, Y told me that August had arrived and it was time she was back in Dunoon. So the final part of my adventuring with her was to face a ferry trip. Hettie the Hielan' Coo was there to reassure me that we were really all quite safe. (Why worry, thought I... the plastic duck with full buoyancy...)

I have to say, I didn't mind that, not at all. I got to ride up front of the van for a change (having spent most of the trip hitched to the Rolls-later and pretty much blind folded).  What a pretty part of the Bonny Land this is. Y had a go at getting me and the background together. Focus wouldn't comply... so here's a two-for-one deal.

Once we were over the other side of the water, Y parked on the shore road, and we sat and enjoyed the view. It was rather fun that I got to see The Waverley, the last ocean-going paddle steamer in the world.  It was a pretty thing, compared to some of the ships on the channel (although I heard Y muttering about utility and purpose and stuff like that...)

Anyway, dear readers, it is time to say goodbye - at least from this blog and this part of my greater adventure. YAM-aunty will have, by the time you read this, planted me somewhere near the foot ferry terminal (which is the town centre) so that I can wait for someone else to find me and carry me away... those of you who visit the book of faces can keep following, if that's your interest. 

I had one last cuddle with Jess the Aussie Collie and Orville the Ovine... Cheeri-oh, and thank you all so much for your lovely comments and for supporting me along the way. Onward!